Author: Clark Scally
Georgia, United States. Wilcox County High School in rural Georgia just hosted its first integrated prom in school history. Until this year, separate white and black proms were held for the school of 380 students. A roughly even number of black and white students make up the demographics of the school. A group of four female students pursued the idea, gathering national support via their Facebook group named Integrated Prom, which received over 25,000 likes and enough donations to rent a ballroom and buy enough food and gift bags for every couple. The prom was held on Saturday, April 27 with over half the school in attendance.
The New York Times
Spain. A Dutchman suspected of being behind the largest internet attack in history was arrested in Barcelona on April 26. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacked the extensive servers of multinational anti-spam corporation Spamhaus in March, slowing internet connection speeds worldwide. The attack has been traced to Dutch hosting firm Cyberbunker, and the man arrested in Barcelona is believed to be Sven Kamphuis, the owner and manager.
“Spamhaus is delighted at the news that an individual has been arrested and is grateful to the Dutch police for the resources they have made available and the way they have worked with us,” an anonymous Spamhaus spokesman said. “Spamhaus remains concerned about the way network resources are being exploited as they were in this incident due to the failure of network providers to implement best practice in security.”
BBC World Service
Italy. Italy swore in Enrico Letta as the new prime minister last Sunday after months without a government following February’s disputed election. Just outside Letta’s office that same day, a gunman fired seven shots and injured two military police officers and a passer-by. The man has been identified as Luigi Preiti, an unemployed man from the destitute region of Calabria. National security sources say Preiti tried to take his own life following the shooting, but he had run out of bullets. “Shoot me! Shoot me!” Preiti reportedly screamed as police detained him.
Italy remains deeply politically divided following disastrous elections with no majority leader and allegations of widespread corruption and fraud in voting misconduct. “The new government will fall unless Letta promises, in his maiden speech, to swiftly abolish an unpopular housing tax and repay the 2012 levy to taxpayers,” Renato Brunetta, lower house leader of former president Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party, said at a subsequent press conference.
The shooting is ruled an isolated incident. Preiti, the shooter, confessed he had planned to wait for Enrico Letta and other politicians to exit the building and then assassinate them, but he overslept and was too late. Angered at mistiming his attack in his mental distress, Preiti continued with his planned attack regardless. Two of the victims were released from the hospital with minor injuries, but one officer, shot in the neck, remains in intensive care at press time.
Reuters and The New York Times
Russia. Twenty-seven activists were arrested on April 27 while protesting the prosecution and violent treatment of protesters under President Vladimir Putin’s rule. Fifty people in Moscow’s Red Square protested the 650 people still in detention after a rally last May concerning the inauguration of President Putin in a controversial third term. A police investigation claims the riots were caused by Left Front political party opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov’s attempts to topple Putin’s government. Opposition activists deny this claim and say the riots were caused by police provocation. Udaltsov is still under house arrest. A much larger rally in the middle of Moscow is planned for May 6, the anniversary of the protest violence.
Ria Novosti English News Service and Russia Today
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